It was filed on behalf of Mikkel Jordahl, a Sedona attorney who personally boycotts goods and services from businesses that support Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. Jordahl contracts with Coconino County Jail District to give legal advice to inmates.

The ACLU is arguing that the state law compels political speech and prevents Jordahl's law firm from participating in a boycott that is protected speech.

To renew his contract with Coconino County, Jordahl would have to certify that his firm does not boycott Israel, and he does not want to sign such a certificate. He already signed one such form in October under protest and has had to ensure his personal boycott does not extend to his law firm.

“Whatever your stance on the boycott issue, everyone has a right to express their opinions on it and act accordingly,” Jordahl said in a press release. “The state has no right to tell private companies how to act when it has nothing to do with state business.”

Jordahl’s family includes three generations of Lutheran ministers, including his father. His parents lived in the occupied West Bank for a year in 1977, and Jordahl spent three months there, according to the complaint.

“Both Mr. Jordahl and his parents were profoundly affected by what they saw in the occupied Palestinian territories,” the complaint said.

His own son was raised Jewish, and Jordahl took him to Israel and Palestine in the spring after his son’s Bar Mitzvah, it states.

Jordahl supports the Evangelical Lutheran Church’s position that advocates for the end of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. Jordahl is a non-Jewish member of Jewish Voice for Peace, which supports a boycott of Israel’s actions, the complaint said.

Jewish Voice for Peace has asked Jordahl’s firm for support, which he has denied so as to avoid violating the certification he signed in October.

“Were it not for the certification requirement, Mr. Jordahl’s firm would provide support services and financial contributions, as well as pro bono legal services, to Jewish Voice for Peace and other boycott participants,” the complaint said.

David Gowan,a former Republican House Speaker from Sierra Vista who was termed out of the Legislature in January, was the principal sponsor though dozens of lawmakers from both parties sponsored the bill.

The bill states that, “A public entity may not enter into a contract with a company to acquire or dispose of services, supplies, information technology or construction unless the contract includes a written certification that the company is not currently engaged in, and agrees for the duration of the contract to not engage in, a boycott of Israel.”

The bill describes a boycott as "engaging in a refusal to deal, terminating business activities or performing other actions that are intended to limit commercial relations with Israel or with persons or entities doing business in Israel or in territories controlled by Israel."

When Gowan introduced his bill to a House committee in 2016, he said it was about stopping "discrimination" against Israel.

"The global boycott, divest and sanction movement have targeted companies such as Boeing and Caterpillar by trying to divest in their companies, which you know these are two major companies in our state that put people to work here," Gowan said, adding boycotts were "anti-Semitic practices."

"Not Boeing and Caterpillar, they are on our side, let me be clear," he said. "(People supporting the boycotts) don’t like that they won’t divest from Israel."

Former lawmaker Adam Kwasman, R-Oro Valley, also spoke in support of the bill in 2016.

"There are very few times that I get to speak as both an Arizona resident, an economist and a member of the Jewish faith," Kwasman said. "This bill encapsulates all of this in a bipartisan fashion."

Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Glenn Hamer supported the bill, though in a personal capacity, at the committee hearing.

"This is economic warfare. It is not only the morally right thing to do to support this legislation … there is great economic opportunity between Israel and Arizona," said Hamer, who noted that his wife was Israeli.

The defendants in the case are Attorney General Mark Brnovich, Coconino County Sheriff Jim Driscoll and several other county officials. The case seeks to have the court declare the law unconstitutional and prevent the state from enforcing it.

Ryan Anderson, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, said his office had not seen the complaint and could not yet comment.

He did say, however, that the office did not raise any issues with the bill in 2016, which it does in rare instances when a proposed law blatantly violates the Constitution.

"I am unaware of our office raising any concern on this bill ... That is not uncommon," Anderson said.

Posted!

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

A view of the Al-Aqsa compound (Temple Mount) in Jerusalem's Old City on July 14, 2017. The rock over which the shrine was built is sacred to both Muslims and Jews and the Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in the world in Islam. According to media reports on Dec. 5 2017 state that US President Donald J. Trump has informed Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that he intends to relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. ATEF SAFADI, EPA-EFE

People collect olives on millenium olive trees situated in the Franciscan Hermitage of Gethsemane in the Mount of Olives in front of the Jerusalem's Old City, on Oct. 21, 2017, with the Dome of the Rock seen in the background. Millenium Olive trees from this christian place make one of the best quality olive oil in the world according to specialists. Thomas Coex, AFP/Getty Images

A Palestinian man uses a rope to climb over a section of Israel's controversial separation barrier that separates the West Bank city of al-Ram from east Jerusalem on Feb. 24, 2016. Many Palestinians from the West Bank cross illegally into Israel everyday in search for work. Thomas Coex, AFP/Getty Images

People stop and stand in silence on a highway in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on April 24, 2017, as sirens wailed across Israel for two minutes marking the annual day of remembrance for the six million Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide.
Israel began marking Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day at sundown on April 23 with a ceremony at the Yad Vashem memorial museum in Jerusalem, which commemorates the Jews killed by the Nazi regime during World War II. Jack Guez, AFP/Getty Images

Jewish men, wearing traditional Jewish prayer shawls known as Tallit, perform the annual Cohanim prayer (priest's blessing) during the Sukkot holiday, or the feast of the Tabernacles, at the Western Wall in the old city of Jerusalem on Oct. 8, 2017. Thousands of Jews make the pilgrimage to Jerusalem during Sukkoth, which commemorates the desert wanderings of the Israelites after their exodus from Egypt. Menahem Kahana, AFP/Getty Images

Palestinian Muslim men perform the morning Eid al-Fitr prayer near the Dome of Rock at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's third most holy site, in the old city of Jerusalem on July 6, 2016. Muslims worldwide celebrate Eid al-Fitr marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. Ahmad Gharabli, AFP/Getty Images

A picture taken on Dec. 5, 2017 shows a partial view of the Palestinian refugee camp of Shuafat in east Jerusalem, where tens of thousands Palestinians live enclosed by the Israeli controversial separation barrier. Ahmad Gharabli, AFP/Getty Images

Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III, center right, and Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I make their way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City on Dec. 5, 2017. Gali Tibbon, AFP/Getty Images

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish man walks near the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives overlooking the old city of Jerusalem on Dec. 5, 2017. Speculation in the media have suggested that US President Donald Trump will soon announce that Jerusalem should be the recognized as the capital of Israel, amid further speculation that the US Embassy should be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, fulfilling one of his campaign promises. Several Arab and Muslim countries are rejecting any possible US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Abir Sultan, EPA-EFE

Israeli policeman stand guard as cement blocks are placed by Israeli security forces on a road linking the Arab east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina and West Jerusalem, on Sept. 29, 2017, ahead of Yom Kippur, the Jewish holy day of Atonement. Israel boosted security and barred Palestinians from entering from the occupied West Bank or the Gaza Strip ahead of the solemn Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur that began at sunset.
Ahmad Gharabli, AFP/Getty Images